Almost a decade ago, I was voted Sportswoman of the Year. Today, despite having retired from competitive sport and no longer Malta’s female triathlon and duathlon champion, sport is still my life. I offer my professional services as a sports nutritionist and physiologist to today’s generation of national swimmers. You could say that from the race track I have moved to the pool side. And I love it. It is an honour and a pleasure to give a small contribution to the success of our swimmers who last year broke 33 national records and the over 40 age-group records.

In the same spirit, I am thrilled to support the White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village project, which is being negotiated with foreign investors. It is exactly what we need in order for Maltese sports to make a qualitative leap forward. Supplying about 40 different sports disciplines – from rugby to martial arts, tennis to beach volley, snooker to badminton – with cutting-edge facilities is the right recipe for this country’s sportsmen and women to keep aiming higher in international competitions.

From my perspective, what will make this sports village a resounding success is that athletes, their coaches, sports associations, educators, sports consultants and others would all be operating from one location.

White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village will pave the way for the first Sports College in Malta, providing athletes full support to effectively combine both sport and academic aspirations, and a Sports Science Centre that will give athletes a state-of-the-art human performance analysis laboratory with unique services using the most accurate testing equipment and protocols for a multitude of sports.

It will also have a House of Sports, which will be the administrative home of sport associations, with their own offices, shared meeting rooms and conference facilities. This is the sort of professional upgrade that will give our enthusiastic and promising athletes the boost they need.

Having visited a number of sports centres around Europe and beyond, I have come to realise that the key to a wel-run, functional and financially sustainable facility is its architecture and design.

In this sense, I was overjoyed with the announcement that FaulknerBrowns will be taking the White Rocks job in hand. This is an architectural design practice with a national and international reputation and which has won over 110 awards. It is the only architectural practice in the world to have been given two awards in any one year by the International Olympic Committee/Association of Sports and Leisure Facilities and it has received the highest number of these coveted international awards. In 2005, it won Building Design’s Architect of the Year award in the sports and leisure category and also the British Council for Offices Best Corporate Building 2005. Clearly, we will be getting the best.

I look at this project from an even broader perspective. Experience abroad has led me to strongly believe that this small country of ours can become a hub for sports tourism. The White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village can be the place where international training camps, competitions and conferences on sport matters are held. Our climate is ideal for sportsmen and women, particularly from Nordic countries, to escape their winters.

In addition, the local sporting fraternity will benefit greatly from the synergies created through such events. And, of course, the economic and social dividends to the country from such tourism would be an added bonus to the €200 million and 800 new jobs that this project aims to bring with it.

Maltese sport has reached a crossroad. We either continue to make do with what we have, tinkering with the existing facilities and logistics here and there, or give our athletes the tools and back-up to compete on an equal footing with their fellow competitors in international competitions. I have no doubt that the latter road is the one that leads to excellence for our dedicated and talented athletes and the only one that makes sense. And that road leads to the White Rocks Sports & Leisure Village.

Take it from a former triathlete (or athlete): Let’s take it and not get sidetracked.

The author, who was awarded a diploma in sports nutrition by the International Olympic Committee, one of only 88 in the world, chairs the health and sport science commission within the Malta Sports Council.